Show us your butterflies...

[Towlersonsafari]

Continuing my love affair with the Marbled White, here is another male, and a female, which has brown underwings

[Towlersonsafari]

and here is a common butterfly the Ringlet (in France its common name is apparently Le Tristan or the sorrowful one) and then the Silver Washed Fritillary-it has silver "washes" on its upper wings which you cannot  see on this photo!,

 

Edited June 28, 2020 by Towlersonsafari

[Towlersonsafari]

and finally this time of year sees the madness that is tryin to find the Purple Emporer it lis around tree tops until the male, who needs minerals to get into breeding condition comes to the round mostly to feed on dog shit. As we have a very good site in Northamptonshire, and I was not working on thursday morning, i went bright and early to aviod the crowds, wot wiv social distancing an all.And was one of 12 gathered around this individual who at last ahd the decency to try to hide its meal. i must admit I felt uncomfortable even though i was able to keep my distance.I did seem very silly

[Towlersonsafari]

whilst walking to Fotheringay (birthpalce of Richard third) e came across quite a few GateKeeper butterflies-they have 2 white spots in their "eye" as opposed to the Meadow Brown's one spot, and are a lovely orangy brown. according to Peter Marren's wonderful book, they were first iven the common name (By Thomas Petiver 1665-17180  "The Hedge-Eye with double specks" which did not catch on.it is also known as the Hedge Brown and its latin name-given to it by Linnaeus- refers to Tithonus who was a boy who wanted to be immortal but forgot to read the samll print of Zeuss's offer and only became immortal after he was very old

[Towlersonsafari]

We also saw the Herald moth (i think)  which apparently reminds one of a Herald's traditional costume though its latin name refers to a Roman priestess.in Holland they call it  Roeje ( robe) but in Germany it is called Zackeneule, the Pink Owl

[Towlersonsafari]

Here is a silver washed fritillary, sadly rather weathered, but you can see the silver washes on its wings as sort of losenge shaped markings

[Towlersonsafari]

And here is a Brown Argus, which is a memeber of the Blues and looks very similar with its wings closed to a lot of the blue family-the thin (as oppsoed to thick!) black line round the edes is as they say "diagnostic"  the english name is after the mythial Greek shepherd who had a lot more eyes then  could be considered reasonable

[Towlersonsafari]

About 2 weeks ago we came across a lot of six spotted Burnet moths all emerging at the same time-about 10-in the same wildflower meadow

[offshorebirder]

Late August and September are coming @Towlersonsafari so soon I will have some lepidoptera pix to contribute.    Thanks for your contributions.

 

[offshorebirder]

This is a Falcate Orangetip (Anthocharis midea) photographed Monday in coastal South Carolina at the Yawkey Wildlife Center.  Seeing Orangetips reminds me of Africa.  

 

In the first photo it is nectaring at Chickweed flowers.  In the second, it is ovipositing (laying eggs) on a host plant!   This little butterfly barely holds still - I usually manage three or four good photos of them each year when they fly in the spring.  First time I have ever photographed one ovipositing.

 

The host plant is Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) - it is in the mustard family.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 31, 2021 by offshorebirder

[Towlersonsafari]

I am  pleased that your Orange Tips give you as much trouble as the ones we see @offshorebirder! more butterflies in the Uk are starting o be seen-indeed it is the start of the fruitless-mostly-season of looking for the green hairstreak, a small green butterfly that likes sitting amongst the  small green hawthorn leaves.We have seen the Green veined White, a very common UK butterfly, and the first Speckled Wood.

[Bush dog]

Here are two from Madagascar :

 

Madagascar moon moth

 

 

Madagascar diadem (Hypolimnas dexithea)

 

[Peter Connan]

Beautiful.

[Bush dog]

@Peter Connan

 

Thanks, Peter !

 

[Bush dog]

The picture was taken on the steps leading to the Pak Ou caves located along the Mekong, 25 kilometers north of Luang Prabang, Laos.  Sorry, I can't identify this species.

 

[Pictus Safaris]

I'm no butterfly expert @Bush dog, but that looks to me like a marbled map, Cyrestis cocles. Beautiful specimen!

[offshorebirder]

Your recent posts have some stunners @Bush dog - thanks for sharing them.

[Bush dog]

@Pictus Safaris

Thanks a lot for the identification.  You're absolutely right, it looks indeed like a marbled map.

 

I found an interesting article about it :

 

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Rare-‘Marbled-Map’-butterfly-sighted-in-Eastern-Ghats/article14488743.ece

[Bush dog]

@offshorebirder

Thanks!   Honestly I do not know if my recent posts have somme stunners but I really do like the graphic composition of the image with the marbled map.

[Towlersonsafari]

last year, with the timing of the first lock down, we did not get to see any of the early spring butterflies.this year, with bad weather making them a couple of weeks later than usual, we finally saw 2 very small butterflis-the dingy skipper 9originally called, in the late 1600's "Handley's Small Brown Butterfly" and very tricky to see-well to me anyway

[Towlersonsafari]

And the  also tricky Grizzled skipper- skippers in england at least were originally called "Hogs" and I understand in the Netherlands skipprs are calld "dikkopje" -literally meaning tadpoles or more loosely "bigheads" -( from Emporers Admirals and chimney sweepers" by Peter Marren). te grizzled Skipper was first iven the name "Dandrige's midling black Fritillary"

[Towlersonsafari]

and we also saw a moth, wich likes the same habitat the Burnet companion

[Towlersonsafari]

the smallest uk butterfly, and one that we had not seen-and identified before, is the Small Blue (Cupido Minimus). a good way of telling it apart from the Holly blue is that it has no orange on its underwing, and it looks a darker blue than the common blue

Edited June 6, 2021 by Towlersonsafari

[Towlersonsafari]

we also saw common blues,(polommatus icarus) and you can see the orange eye spots on the underwing. both butterflies were first described in 1795

[Towlersonsafari]

at the very end of their adult season, a green hairstreak ( Callophrys rubi) -there are 5 UK hairstreaks named because of the "streak" or mark on the underwing